Sunday, July 6, 2008

It's your fault!

I blame it on all of you out there getting new kitchen cabinets. I've been obsessing over them. When I realized that we aren't in a position to buy new doors right this minute, I thought maybe some sanding and a clear coat of poly would tide me over for a couple of years. So I sanded the back of one door to see. And I really liked it-- or, at least, it was an improvement in my humble opinion:

The top one was partially sanded and given a coat of clear water-based poly. It highlights all the variations in the wood. But then I tried to sand the front of the door. Unfortunately, it's a bit more complicated. Lots of beveling and curved surfaces. It was just going to take too long. Not to mention, the doors are in much worse shape than I remember. I ended up cleaning them all with some 409, taking off the old hinges, and hammering lose stiles back into place. We're going to put these back for now-- just to hide the clutter-- and price building them ourselves. Then we can decide if the money saved is worth doing it ourselves. I may get those custom doors I wanted after all...

I don't think I'd have been able to stand it if that's all I got done this weekend. Luckily, I managed to clean the front porch and then use one of those Lowe's coupons to get some Adirondack chairs.

And the most time consuming project was that baker's rack I mentioned the other day. I picked it up from my mom's and it was in worse shape than I expected.

A couple hours with a wire brush, some steel wool and a spray of water, plus a good coat of primer did the trick, though.

The final product, after a coat of satin wine red--

Ta da!

I like it. We may move it around. At least I got something done! Now I can feel accomplished.

8 comments:

Here's a wacky idea - since you like the backs of the doors so much, why not put them on backwards? You could slice off a piece of the edge of each to make an inset door (rather than overlay that they currently are), and hide the hinge holes by putting on period-appropriate surface-mount hinges. I call them butterfly hinges, they kind of look like butterflies. Then if the doors were inset, I bet your hardware would look a lot better. You could leave the drawers fronts right side out but just sand them. There are lots of bungalow kitchens that had overlay drawers + inset doors, and it looks pretty cool. I think that would look good! They are nice quality doors, even if the style isn't right...

We considered that, actually, but there's a beveled edge that makes just an overlay impossible, and I think the way the dadoes are cut into the stiles doesn't leave enough room to trim off the beveling and make them inset. Sigh. I'll reinvestigate the insert idea, though-- I'm working off my memory and it's an idea worth giving a second look!

By the way... It always seems to be 'worse than expected' or 'more complicated than expected' - doesn't it? It seems like we all - in our infinite wisdom - would eventually come to EXPECT the worst or the most complicated... so that we would no longer be able to say such things. But then - I think such wisdom is overshadowed by near-criminally insane optimism. And I suppose we can't knock the optimism: Without it we wouldn't have started attempted any of this to begin with!

Thanks! The baker's rack has been hanging around a damp basement for 20 years, so it's actually pretty good, considering.

We, too, were in webbed folding chair land-- handed down folding chairs, at that. But I only wanted to pay $10 per chair. I finally found them at Lowe's for $15 each, plus a $10 off coupon, and they came out to the right price!

I think about all the times in this home project that my mom's looked at me with that "I don't know..." face when I tell her about my projects. I guess optimism is indeed the only way!

That wine rack looks great, I hope the rust damage won't affect the rack's ability to hold all those liquor bottles.

I was going to suggest turning the doors around, but it seems that you explored that option. As far as pricing those cabinet doors, I think you'll be surprised at how much the wood will cost you. My cabinet guy, although I'm not sure if he services Ft. Smith, but he is really good. Doug Smith of Smith Cabinet Shop. Good prices too.